Walk off your Thanksgiving meal on Friday with a special invitation to stroll the Johannis Farm Wildlife Preserve on Friday, Nov. 23, from 10 a.m. to noon.

The Barrington Land Conservation Trust invites people to explore the beauty and diversity of Johannis Farm Nature Preserve with a special guided tour. (Johannis is maintained and protected by the land trust and is normally closed to the public.)

People should register for the walk by visiting the Barrington Public Library website (www.barringtonlibrary.org) and clicking on the link for the walk. Parking is limited at the trailhead, so people will meet at the parking lot of Sowams Elementary School.

Property history

The Johannis Farm Wildlife Preserve is a 32-acre parcel, located in the northeast corner of Barrington between Sowams Road and the Palmer River, and is home to a variety of landscapes, including open fields, farmland, woodlands, saltwater marshes and wetlands. There are walking trails, wooden footbridges, and a mixture of natural habitats for a diverse range of wildlife.

Blue herons, ospreys, red-tailed hawks and great horned owls roam the skies, while minks, muskrats, foxes and weasels live amongst the trees and fields. At low tide, when the spongy, deep mud and peat of the soil is exposed, hermit crabs scurry through the reeds in search of shelter. 

Like much of the history in Barrington, the Johannis Farm land was once part of the Sowams Territory of the Wampanoag tribe, where they hunted, fished and trapped. According to town records, the Wampanoag sold the Sowams territory, which included all of Barrington, to a group of settlers in 1653. The property was cleared by a group of colonists from the Massachusetts Colony, who renamed the area “New Meadow Neck.” Many years later, the land was acquired by the Johannis family.

The Johannis family farmed the area for several generations during the 20th century. In the late 1980s, the Barrington Land Conservation Trust began formal plans to purchase the farm. After several years of negotiations, the Trust, enabled by both the town and state 1988 Open Space Bonds, purchased the 28 acres from the Johannises. William Johannis Jr., Robert Johannis and Barbara Wroten donated the remaining four acres of the preserve, located in Swansea. Along with providing an important protective buffer by the western shore of the Palmer River, the area is also used for nature walks and education.

The purpose of the acquisition, as with so many others that the trust owns and/or maintains, is “to assure that the premises will be retained forever in its open, natural, scenic, agricultural, ecological or educational condition and to prevent any use of the premises that will significantly impair or interfere with the conservation values of the premises.”

An easement, held by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, is also in place. The easement requires the protection of White Colicroot and Salt Marsh Bulrush, both of which can be seen on the property.